Lower School

Welcome to Lower School. With the physical growth of early childhood complete, children are ready for formal learning in the classroom. Emphasis in the Grades is placed on the feeling-filled experience of knowledge. The interdisciplinary and experiential nature of the early grades inspire a love of learning.

First Grade

I am ready to learn!

An exciting transition for child and family alike, your first grader is eager to begin “school.” Our curriculum thoughtfully guides children into academics and helps them learn how to learn. The first grade curriculum emphasizes the archetypes that underlie all human experience and lays a strong foundation for the future. With the guidance of the first grade teacher, the class forms itself in a harmonious and cohesive whole.

While teachers tailor the Waldorf curriculum to the needs of each class, your First Grader will typically learn:

History/Literature: Grimm’s fairy tales and folk tales from around the world.

Learning to knit teaches you that you can figure out most anything

1st graders recite poetry

A butterfly, ladybug and snail in the 1st grade play

Second Grade

I am awakening.

The children now know how to be part of a class and work together. They are eager and ready for new challenges. They move away from the “one-ness” of first grade and their behavior becomes more emphatic and extreme. This experience of polar opposites is the hallmark of second grade. The teacher’s responsibility is to bring balance to these extremes. The material for the year meets this need precisely with stories that affirm the struggle of overcoming one’s baser instincts and rising to the good, the beautiful, and the true in life.

While teachers tailor the Waldorf curriculum to the needs of each class, your Second Grader will typically learn:

History/Literature: Aesop’s fables and from other cultures, Native American stories, legends of saints and other “holy” people, The King of Ireland’s Son.

English/Grammar: Children are immersed in reading, writing and spelling. They create their own handwritten “readers” and read along with peers from classic readers.

Handwork: Continuation of knitting, introduction of purling, casting on/off, and color work. Creation of a flute case and gnome doll.

Gardening: Connection to nature and the four elements through imaginative story, song, play and craft; inquiry into the role of healthy soil via “Worm Ranch”; introduction of small groups for garden work.

Woodworking: Sanding, sawing and whittling.

Modeling: Beeswax modeling of scenes from the curriculum. Introduction to clay work.

Festivals connect us to the wonder of life

Determination and persistence -- among the most important of life skills

Third Grade

Who am I?

As children turn nine, a “fall” from Paradise to Earth occurs, metaphorically, as they struggle with a new awareness of their separateness, often called “the 9-year change.” They grapple with human existence on earth. The Old Testament reflects and eases this transition with stories of miracles, sacrifice, loyalty, disobedience, joy, sorrow, jealousy, and love. This separateness signals the development of antipathy, which is the first step toward analytical thinking. Making critical comments eventually evolves into making discriminating choices. A new understanding of natural consequences comes into play. With this more earthly awareness, the children need to learn not only to survive, but to thrive. And so we meet them with the practical skills of gardening, cooking, and building.

While teachers tailor the Waldorf curriculum to the needs of each class, your Third Grader will typically learn:

Science: Traditional shelters from many cultures. Gardening and animal husbandry.

Mathematics: Whole numbers, times tables, number patterns, measurement, carrying and borrowing, multi-digit multiplication, time and money.

Drawing: Form drawing using stick crayons. Introduction of colored pencils.

Painting: Advanced forms and technical details introduced.

Handwork: Crocheting: making a hat and practical articles for the home.

Gardening: The cycle of food as nourishment- soil building through composting, seeding, planting, care, harvest and processing of grains such as wheat, corn and millet; natural dye plants experimentation and weaving project; bouquet arrangement.

Woodworking: Stories about trees and forests. House- and structure-building. Building a model house from a traditional culture.

Modeling: Beeswax modeling of scenes from the curriculum.

Music: Sing and play diatonic rounds and seasonal songs, sea shanties and work songs. Introduce diatonic flute, beginning music theory, introduce major and minor scales.

Eurythmy: Movement for major and minor scales, harmonies, and other musical principles. Conscious gestures for sounds of speech. Gestures for C Major scale.

Making candles in 3rd grade

3rd Grade Field Trip to Live Power Biodynamic Farm -- About to Plow a field

Children develop poise by performing plays every year

Fourth Grade

I want to stand on my own two feet.

After the 9-year-change, each child experiences the more complex and varied circumstances that make up the “real world.” The child turns more earnestly toward becoming a student. The goal of fourth grade is to channel the powerful energy the ten-year-old brings by challenging and stretching them in every possible aspect of work. Projects are designed to build up stamina. Because their imagination can fade as their intellect takes over, children are encouraged to develop and express their feelings and imagination so they can arrive at a trust and belief in the moral order of the world they now see more clearly around them. The teacher helps guide and develop the power of observation with moral and reverent thoughts and deeds.

While teachers tailor the Waldorf curriculum to the needs of each class, your Fourth Grader will typically learn:

History: Local and native people’s history through geography. State history study.

English/Grammar: Grammatical rules, including parts of speech and tenses. Plays and speech work. Compositions with emphasis on story and content, letter writing, book reports, spelling rules and vocabulary lists.

Gardening: Project based studies of our landscape and the native Ohlone who tended this land before us- acorn processing, basket weaving; care for the land through gardening, birdhouse building, honeybee tending.

Woodworking: Forest walks and tree identification throughout the seasons of the year.

Modeling: Clay modeling through the themes of the curriculum.

Music: Introduce string orchestra. Children take up violin, viola, cello or bass. Continue music reading, major and minor scales, play in 2-4 parts.

Handwork encourages collaboration and persistence

Every grade does a class play

4th Grade geography trip to Mt. Tam

Fifth Grade

I sense myself in relation to others.

This is the pivotal point between childhood and puberty. Fifth grade is a year of harmonious balance as well as the doorway to more systematic thinking and scientific observation. The curriculum reflects this change in the transition from myth to history, the study of Egyptian pyramids and the perfect forms of Ancient Greece. Now the students must clothe their insights with the delicate sense of beauty they have cultivated since first grade. In a blend of careful observation and artistic vision, the goal of fifth grade teaching is to inspire “exact imagination” in our students.

While teachers tailor the Waldorf curriculum to the needs of each class, your Fifth Grader will typically learn: